Watch 100 documentaries

Hot Coffee
“The McDonald’s coffee case has been routinely cited by the media as an example of how citizens have taken advantage of the legal system. We will show how this case became so popular in the media, who funded the effort and to what end. We will tell the truth and let the audience decide if spilling hot coffee is really as profitable as they might otherwise believe.”

Rome rights – Slovakia
About the suppression of Romani people.

Super Rich The Greed Game
As the credit crunch bites and a global economic crisis threatens, Robert Peston reveals how the super-rich have made their fortunes, and the rest of us are picking up the bill.

Beyond Me
“Beyond Me discusses consciousness, space and the human condition. This film takes you from the cosmos, to quantum physics, to animal instincts, reincarnation, cellular biology, consciousness, computer science and mental illness in a way that seamlessly ties them all together.”

Whether you believe in it or not, it gives you a very interesting perspective on things.

Why Do We Dream?
“Horizon uncovers the secret world of our dreams. In a series of cutting-edge experiments and personal stories, we go in search of the science behind this most enduring mystery and ask: where do dreams come from? Do they have meaning? And ultimately, why do we dream?”

This documentary had a scientific approach to dreams which means they ignored any alternative answers to their questions. I found the part about lucid dreams interesting though.

Addicted to Surrogacy
“This documentary follows the extraordinary stories of the women who are hooked on giving away babies.

Around a thousand surrogate babies have been born in the UK over the past two decades. And in recent years, half of them have been born to women who’ve been surrogates more than once. The truth behind what drives these serial surrogates is far more complex than simply money or altruism.”

Supermassive Black Holes
“In June 2000, astronomers made an extraordinary discovery. One that promises to solve one of the biggest problems in cosmology – how and why galaxies are created. Incredibly, the answer involves the most weird, destructive and terrifying objects in the Universe – supermassive black holes. Scientists are beginning to believe that these forces of pure destruction actually help trigger the birth of galaxies and therefore are at the heart of the creation of stars, planets and all life. The supermassive black hole in our own galaxy may be the reason we exist, but recent work suggests it may also be our end.”

Why Am I Me?
“There are 6 billion people on the planet. Every single one of them are unique individual.

We each have thougths and ideas and memories and feelings. What is happening in your brain when talking and listening?

This is not about mechanics of speaking, listening and understanding a language. This is about subjective sensation of being you.

British scientist Susan Adele Greenfield who brings attention to Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, explains how the brains generate a mind that is individual to each of us.Welcome to the mysterious world of neurons.”

Life in North Korea
“The BBC has a searing documentary, released in 2009, on what life is like inside North Korea, the world’s worst police state. The living experience and conditions are just about as bad as anything you can imagine.

One example straight out of “1984”: in Pyongyang, the capital, every apartment’s kitchen has a speaker that broadcasts government propaganda day and night. You can turn the volume up or down, but you cannot turn it off.”

College Conspiracy
“College Conspiracy debunks many myths, including the belief that Americans with college degrees earn $1 million more in lifetime income compared to high school graduates without a college degree.

This is to say nothing of the staggering economic misery occurring.”

They share some interesting facts in this documentary. However, I think they exaggerated a little by claiming that only those with enough gold and silver will be able to buy food in the future due to hyperinflation. I hope they aren’t right.

Missionaries of Hate
Correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Uganda, where many question whether the growing influence of American religious groups has led to a movement to make homosexuality a crime punishable by death.

As an anti-gay movement spreads across the continent, gay Africans and their families face an increasingly uncertain future of isolation, imprisonment or even execution.

American evangelists have played a central role in defining the nation’s hard line against sexual minorities.”

This documentary is very sad and disturbing. There are so many things that just don’t make sense.
They generalize all gays.
They think they can play God and judge others.
They’re condemning something that’s none of their business.

The Money Fix
“Money is just information, a way we measure what we trade, nothing of value in itself. And we can make it ourselves, to work as a complement to conventional money. It’s just a matter of design.

Money is at the intersection of nearly every aspect of modern life. Most of us take the monetary system for granted, but it has a profound and largely misunderstood influence on our lives. The Money Fix is a feature-length documentary exploring our society’s relationship with the almighty dollar.

The film documents three types of alternative money systems, all of which help solve economic problems for the communities in which they operate.”

Makes you look at money from a different perspective.

India the land of missing children
“Documentary investigating the trafficking of children in India for the sex trade in Calcutta and Bombay. Looks at how young girls from rural and mountain areas are either kidnapped or lured into sex slavery with the promise of jobs in the city. Reporter Sam Kiley interviews some of those involved, and follows the routes taken by the traders and their victims and accompanies police and the Rescue Foundation charity on raids on brothels, rescuing underage girls.”

Unbelievable. What disturbed me the most is this police officer who said that child prostitution is a need of the society, and if this need is not fulfilled it could lead to rapes of good girls.. as if these victims of child prostitution are bad girls…

Jerusalem – The East Side Story
“This is a documentary that squeezes nearly 100 years of history into an hour or so of cinema. It mainly exposes the past 40 years of Israeli military occupation policies in Jerusalem and their devastating impact on the city and its peoples.”

I Was Worth 50 Sheep
“I Was Worth 50 Sheep is the tale of these two sisters and their struggle for human dignity and freedom in a war-torn country caught between ancient traditions and a modern world.”

I didn’t know whether to feel sorry for or angry with their father. In one way he seems like a cynical psycho to sell his own daughters to old, violent men. On the other hand he’s sort of a victim of the society, traditions and poverty around him – this is normal to him. It’s this kind of destiny that awaits many of those who can’t get a son. And the women are trapped in an illiterate, patriarchal society where they’re being treated as property. Tragically, this story is just one out of many…

Alone – The Brain, Sensory Deprivation and Isolation
“Six ordinary people will face total sensory deprivation, all in the name of science.

We live in a dangerous era were solitary confinement and sensory deprivation are sometimes used as punishment even as political tools.

Yet scientists just beginning to investigate the impact of total isolation on the mind.

Using the latest technology and a all to real simulation, scientists hope to answer a question as old as imprisonment itself.

What happen inside your brain when you are left truly alone?”

The Red Chapel
The Red Chapel, directed by Mads Brügger follows “a journalist with no scruples and two Danish-Korean comedians as they travel to North Korea under the guise of a cultural exchange visit to challenge one of the world’s most notorious regimes.

Egypt Inside The Revolution
This is a film of two days in the Egyptian revolution. By the time you see it you will know more about the outcome of this revolution. Most of the pictures, films and interviews that you will see was shot on the day of the mass demonstration Tuesday the 1st of February. Amid the chaos of demonstrations of 2 million throughout Cairo and many more throughout Egypt we have talked to the people who made this revolution possible. The films and pictures you see comes from a number of sources.

Jailhouse Rock – Philippines
“Prisoners at Cebu are considered the most dangerous offenders in the Philippines. But thanks to four hours of dance lessons a day, their behaviour has been transformed.
Previously, Cebu prison was a wretched place ruled by rival gangs. But when the warden introduced dance lessons, everything changed. “Everyone became friends”. Now the prisoners spend most of the day practising new routines.”

Women On The Frontline – Austria
“One in five Austrian women are victims of male violence. 7,000 cases of domestic violence a year are reported to the police, and police suspect more go unreported. With 95% of reported abuse occurring in the home, the Austrian authorities have created a legal “Red Card” that gives police the power to eject men from their houses, which then become domestic sanctuaries for the women.”

Women On The Frontline – Turkey
Worldwide, according to the United Nations Population Fund, as many as 5,000 women a year are murdered in the name of honour. In Turkey there are no recorded figures. But behind closed doors, officials admit that the problem is a grave one. Emanating from centuries old traditions, it is proving almost impossible to eradicate. Recent attempts to crack down on perpetrators, such as making life imprisonment mandatory, have not solved the problem, but instead stimulated a whole new wave of criminal activity: forced suicides.”

650 Pound Virgin
“With the help of a personal trainer, David was able to lose on average about 15 pounds a month. The documentary will also show how David Smith underwent surgery several times to remove the excess skin that was left from his massive weight loss. So far, he has had 3 operations to remove extra skin and doctors believe he will need 1 or 2 more to get things to a normal state.”

Small Teen, Big World
“The close relationship between teenager Jas, who has an undiagnosed form of dwarfism, and her mum Bev, who has the same condition.”

Louis Theroux meets boers in South Africa
“Louis Theroux travels to South Africa to meet White separatists leader Eugene Terre ‘Blanche, and then Louis talks to White Separatists who dream of building non-black communities in post-apartheid South Africa.”

Louis Theroux on black nationalism
“American black nationalist groups have been branded anti-Semitic, homophobic, misogynist and racist by the mainstream press. Louis Theroux goes to Harlem in New York to meet its proponents.

Theroux meets the Reverend Al Sharpton, the main point of contact in the black nationalist movement. Theroux also meets Khalid Abdul Muhammad, dubbed by the media ‘the most dangerous man in America’ and visits the Israeli School of Universal Practical Knowledge, who believe that blacks are the true Israelites and that all English monarchs until early modern times were black.”

These two docs about the white boers and the black nationalists have a lot in common. I found both sides to be aggressive, arrogant and hateful. They were stuck in the past, angry because of what previous generations did ages ago and therefore kept those barriers alive. It was quite frustrating to watch. But the fact is we all have ancestors that were discriminated, killed, tortured etc if we go far enough back in time, but we can’t hate people of today for what the generation of their great great grandparents did.

The Century of the Self
“This series is about how those in power have used Freud’s theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy. Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, changed the perception of the human mind and its workings profoundly.

His influence on the 20th century is widely regarded as massive. The documentary describes the impact of Freud’s theories on the perception of the human mind, and the ways public relations agencies and politicians have used this during the last 100 years for their “engineering of consent”. Among the main characters are Freud himself and his nephew Edward Bernays, who was the first to use psychological techniques in advertising. He is often seen as the “father of the public relations industry”.

Freud’s daughter Anna Freud, a pioneer of child psychology, is mentioned in the second part, as well as Wilhelm Reich, one of the main opponents of Freud’s theories. Along these general themes, The Century of the Self asks deeper questions about the roots and methods of modern consumerism, representative democracy and its implications. It also questions the modern way we see ourselves, the attitude to fashion and superficiality.”

I hope more people see this and stop their excessive consumerism. Why let a bunch of greedy, cynical people control the masses?

New Swirled Order
“Where does this mysterious crop circle phenomena come from? Is it done by man as a joke? So why do people have extraordinary experiences then? Flying ball of lights were seen in and around crop cirlces. Or is it an alien intelligence which try to communicate with us? The geometry which can be found in crop circles, inculed a lot of mathematics which can be also found in nature.

Our new documentary ‘New swirled order’ deals with these questions and present some very extraordinary Crop circle formations in 2008, like the ‘Pi’-formation in Barbury Castle or the Crop Circle near Avebury Manor, which showed our solar system with the planetary constellation of December 21 of 2012.”

Out of Africa – Spain
“The 1,400 km voyage from Senegal to the Canary Islands is now the favoured way for illegal immigrants to enter Europe. But as many as 40% never make it.

Every day, an armada of tiny flotillas brave the 11 day journey from West Africa to the Canaries. “So far today, we’ve had 293 arrivals. Several needed medical attention for serious wounds”, states Oswaldo Lemus from the Red Cross. Under Spanish law, these men can only be detained for 40 days. If their nationality cannot be established in that period, they are released into the local community.

In Senegal, the dangers of the voyage don’t appear to be putting people off. Everyone knows someone who did not make the crossing. “Here, young people have no future”, complains Alkally Sarr. He’s already survived the journey once, only to be deported. But he’s vowed to; “try again. For as long as I live”.”

Louis Theroux: The most hated family in America
“Louis Theroux travels to Kansas and meets with the Westboro Baptist Church, home of the infamous Phelps family.

As the Phelps family travel the country, picketing the funerals of dead soldiers with their baffling propaganda.

Not a lot of things shock me anymore, but the fact that they protest during people’s funerals and that they raised their children to hate certain people I found very disturbing.”

Louis Theroux Indian gurus
“Louis travels to India in search of enlightenment. He visits a miracle-working guru, Swami G, and meets one of his disciples, an American physicist called Mike, who was initially a sceptic until he witnessed the swami materialise jewellery, believing it to be a miracle. One Hare Krishna devotee – another expatriate American – explains enlightenment as “when the mind is completely clear and calm and quiet, with no thought, really.” Another devotee offered more incentive: “The depth of ecstasy of losing self is so deep, that once you taste it, all other pleasures are insignificant.”

This just confirms my suspicions that those who are self-proclaimed enlightened gurus rarely are enlightened. There was one humble guy in there though that seemed like knew what he was doing.

Louis Theroux Thai brides
“Louis Theroux travels to Thailand in search of love. He’s heard of a group of Western men who’ve rejected European women and are seeking out Thai women for marriage. Louis stops first at a Bangkok office block to meet Ronnie Conrad, owner of Anglo-Thai introductions. Ronnie has over a thousand Thai women, of all ages, on his books, but Louis is a little concerned to find that Ronnie categorises the women according to looks, height and weight in “A” and “B” lists. Ronnie also makes videos of the women to send to clients and Louis looks on as a tape is made. That evening, 55-year-old Ronnie introduces Louis to Mam, his bride-to-be, and the three of them go out for a meal to celebrate Mam’s 21st birthday.

Thai Professional Introductions – a marriage agency run by Briton Lawrence Lynch – has just started searching for a woman for former soldier Lake Palmer, who’s over from the UK looking for a bride. Lake invites Louis along on his first date, for which he’s prepared a list of questions which he has to ask through an interpreter – but it’s a disaster. Louis is shocked to learn that – only two days after landing in Thailand – Lake has married.”

I support intercultural relationships when two people truly love each other. There’s nothing more beautiful than contrasts. But when people marry someone based on criteria like income, nationality and how good you are at cooking, it makes me wonder what their motives (and values) are. Especially when people marry someone after just a few days when they don’t even speak a common language.

Why are thin people not fat?
“The world is affected by an obesity epidemic, but why is it that not everyone is succumbing? Medical science has been obsessed with this subject and is coming up with some unexpected answers. As it turns out, it is not all about exercise and diet. At the centre of this programme is a controversial overeating experiment that aims to identify exactly what it is about some people that makes it hard for them to bulk up.”

I thought it was an interesting documentary, but it seemed as if the researchers jumped to conclusions, as if they had a hypothesis they were eager to confirm. The only explanation they seemed to consider was that the body is programmed to keep what the body itself thinks is its ideal weight and will do everything to get back there if someone’s weight changes. Personally I can think of a lot more possible reasons why it’s easier for some people to lose weight than for others.

Apology of an economic hit man
John Perkins was a prominent member of the top-secret team of “economic hit men”, who used fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, military coups and murder to create the global American empire after World War II. After a long internal struggle between his guilt and the fear of telling the truth, Perkins meets the daughter of an assassinated president and speaks out in front of an angry Latin-American audience.

Based on rare propagandistic material, film-noir style reconstructed sequences and exclusive filmed confessions of best selling author John Perkins (Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, The Secret History of the American Empire) this fascinating documentary sheds light on the unknown mechanisms used by the rulers of the modern world, the roots of Islamic terrorism, and the reason why most of the world’s population lives in poverty. The definitive answer to President Bush’s question “why do they hate us?”

All I can say is that if this is true, the world is much more corrupt than I thought it was. Where do they find all these cynical people that work for them?

Children underground
“This astonishingly intimate documentary follows five homeless children in Romania, where the collapse of communism has led to a life on the street for 20,000 children.

From a 16-year-old girl who runs her gang with a mixture of brutality and compassion, to a small, intelligent, and remarkably articulate 12-year-old boy, these children seem at first feral and frightening–yet over the course of the movie their loneliness, desperation, and glimpses of hope will transform how you perceive them.

As Children Underground explores the meager state resources to support these children and follows some of the children back to their difficult families, the scope of the problem becomes larger and more irresolvable.”

This was extremely difficult to watch. To me it’s incomprehensible why no one takes care of them and that children have to suffer like this.

Red without blue
“An honest portrayal of a family in turmoil, ‘Red without blue’ follows a pair of identical twins as one transitions from male to female. Captured over a period of three years, the film documents the twins and their parents, examining the Farley’s struggle to redefine their family. The twins’ early lives were quintessentially all-American: picture-perfect holidays, supportive parents who cheered them on every step of the way. By the time they were 14, their parents had divorced, they had come out as gay, and a joint suicide attempt precipitated a forced separation of Mark and Alex for two and half years. Through candid and extensive interviews with the twins and their family, ‘Red without blue’ recounts these troubled times, interweaving the twins’ difficult past with their efforts to find themselves in the present.”

It’s sad to see how much some people suffer only because the society and one’s own family are judgemental. It’s so unnecessary.

On the border of desperation
“This documentary tells the story about fifty-years old Tala and two teenagers, Rebwar (17) and Shahoo (18) and their fight against poverty and for a better life in Kurdistan in Iran bordering to Iraq. They are transporting petrol illegally over the border to Iraq at great risk of being caught or even shot by the border patrols.

Shahoos friend Shadman was recently burned to death, at just fifteen years of age, while smuggling. He carelessly sought the heat from the fire, still with the gasoline tanks on. This terrible accident forced Tala to take her son’s place in the smuggling trade.

Extreme living conditions are forcing them into this trade. It can seem absurd in relation to Iran and Iraq being among the oil richest countries in the world.”

Sad, disturbing, tragic… Watching people take such big risks just to barely get by, watching mother and son cross the border region among mines and soldiers to pay for a medical bill… I wish all countries could take care of its own people instead of wasting money on warfare and corrupt people.

Breakthrough
“Storm is 57 but he certainly doesn’t look it. He runs, climbs mountains and makes films. He’s been eating raw for over 30 years. The film gives us a snapshot of how Storm, Jinjee and their 4 children live their lives. It shows how the children learn through play, and not by going to school. They are growing food in the garden and making animations and having lots of fun.

There is impressive footage of Jinjee during a raw vegan pregnancy, exercising, and walking 5 miles a day, even as she came to term. There is footage of her taken ten days after her child was born, with Jinjee healthy, radiant, active and thin. There is an interview with Jinjee discussing her four pregnancies, both cooked vegan and raw vegan, and how the raw vegan deliveries went much smoother and faster.”

My only concern regarding this doc is that while living so far away from society and being fed only raw vegan food, the children didn’t seem to have much of a choice. Although this is a “good” case where the children were healthy and didn’t seem to suffer, I don’t really support it when people force their beliefs and lifestyles upon their children, so one can only hope that it’s how they want to live also.

How many people can live on planet Earth?
“While much of the projected growth in human population is likely to come from the developing world, it is the lifestyle enjoyed by many in the West that has the most impact on the planet. Some experts claim that in the UK consumers use as much as two and a half times their fair share of Earth’s resources.

Sir David examines whether it is the duty of individuals to commit not only to smaller families, but to change the way they live for the sake of humanity and planet Earth.”

Philosophy – guide to happiness
Socrates on Self-Confidence, Epicurus on Happiness, Seneca on Anger, Montaigne on Self-Esteem, Schopenhauer on Love and Nietzsche on Hardship.

Worth watching if you’re into philosophy or want to see things in life from a different perspective.

How mad are you?
“Take ten volunteers, half have psychiatric disorders, the other half don’t, but who is who? Over five days the group are put through a series of challenges – from performing stand-up comedy to mucking out cows.

The events are designed to explore the character traits of mental illness and ask whether the symptoms might be within all of us.Three leading experts in mental health attempt to spot which volunteers have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. But will the individuals who have suffered from mental illness reveal themselves?”

I think it was a very interesting experiment that shows that there isn’t always such a big difference between people with mental disorders and “normal people”. I don’t think it’s very shocking that the “experts” didn’t get more than 2 out of 5. They seemed a bit narrow-minded to me. E.g., they thought that the one with social anxiety was the one that showed the most signs of anxiety, and weren’t aware of the fact that these people often underestimate themselves and often come across as normal people. They thought eating disorders are all about food and body image. They thought this woman had schizophrenia because of the way she talked and due to her slow responses, and didn’t realize that the reason could be that English wasn’t her native language etc.
But it’s worth watching if you are interested in psychology and like to observe people.

Religulous
“Religulous begins with Bill Maher, standing alone in Israel at a place called Meggido; a worthless pile of rubble where many of the planet’s religions believe the end of the world will begin. From there, Maher pushes us into an intense, honest, and brutally funny discussion of blind belief, presenting the possibility that maybe we should all consider doubt instead. We follow him around the world, as he travels from place to place talking to religious people of different faiths on different continents. The surprising thing here is that even though Maher definitely has an agenda, his movie never skews into the realm of propaganda.

It’s not propaganda, because Maher isn’t running out and finding weirdos to use in smear tactics against the devout. Typically anyone trying to make a case against God goes right to the pedophile priests and the suicide bombers, but Maher makes it a point to focus on normal, reasonably sane religious people. He’s not stacking the deck in his favor, because he doesn’t need to. He talks to truckers in a roadside chapel, he chats with random, middle-class tourists at a Christian-themed amusement park.

He talks to religious shop owners, small town preachers, televangelists, Jews for Jesus, fundamentalist U.S. Senators, Vatican priests, religious scientists, secular Muslims, gay Muslims, people in America, Utah (come on, we all know it’s not really America), Europe, and even in Jerusalem. Though those fumbling for an excuse to discredit him may claim otherwise, these aren’t extremists or lunatics. These are for the most part sane, rational, even intelligent people who believe something which Maher believes is insane.”

Although this documentary has its funny moments, it was a bit disturbing to watch.

HIV = AIDS, fact or fraud?
“Too many people are making too much money out of it, and money is much stronger than truth. This feature-length expose explains exactly how the 300-Billion-dollar AIDS fraud began, why HIV can NOT be the cause of AIDS, what the real causes could be, and who manipulates the public’s good intentions while poisoning hundreds of thousands with toxic drugs that cause the very disease they are supposed to prevent.

You will meet a number of highly reputable scientists who all agree that HIV doesn’t cause AIDS, including Dr. Peter Duesberg, who was the first scientist to map the genetic structure of retroviruses. He is joined by Nobel Prize winners Dr. Kary Mullis and Dr.Walter Gilbert, along with Dr. David Rasnick, an expert in the field of protease inhibitors.”

Ok, so this documentary was biased, but a few statements surprised me. First of all that there is no proven correlation between the HIV virus and AIDS, and critical scientists aren’t allowed to retest this hypothesis.

White blood cells’ CD4-t-cells identify a virus, then they alert B-lymphocite cells to produce antibodies to attack infecting bacteria and viruses. When you take a HIV blood test, if these antibodies are found, the test will come out positive. In persons who are not in AIDS risk groups the HIV test can be wrong 71% of the time. False positives can occur due to Malaria, flu, parasite infections and hormone changes during pregnancy.

Another thing that surprised me is that AZT, the medications given to HIV patients, actually seem to cause AIDS. Mortality of AZT recipients is 25% higher than the untreated.

A human body attacked by a virus usually manage to heal itself by producing antibodies. The question is, why would one take AZT to eliminate the virus (which so far hasn’t worked on anyone) when it is gradually killing the body’s immune system?

The 20 most dangerous drugs
“A team of leading scientists have spent two years analysing the effects of 20 of Britain’s most widely used drugs, and have devised a scientifically rigorous – and controversial – new ranking for them.

How do the brain and body react to each stimulant as it passes into the bloodstream, and what are the long-term effects of drugs relative to their classification?

If the current classification should be changed in view of the latest findings, what exactly is Britain’s most dangerous drug?”

As expected, heroin was deemed the most dangerous drug. Alcohol was no. 5 on the list and tobacco no. 11. With 114 000 deaths a year, tobacco makes a good candidate for the first place, in my opinion.

Ryanair caught napping
“Two Dispatches undercover reporters spent five months secretly filming Ryanair’s training programme and onboard flights as members of the cabin crew. The reporters reveal what really takes place behind the scenes: inadequate safety and security checks, dirty planes, exhausted cabin crew and pilots complaining about the number of hours they have to fly.”

The most disturbing thing was the exhausted cabin crew and pilots. Ryanair demands that the planes should be in and out in 25 minutes which gives the cabin crew too little time to clean the aircraft, get the passengers on and off and to go through the security checks. So they often skip the security checks.
If the pilots said that they were too tired and didn’t feel that they were able to fly they would get demoted or fired. If the cabin crew complained about the great time pressure and work conditions they’d get fired.

They probably wouldn’t be able to assist passengers in an emergency situation because 1. they were exhausted/falling asleep and 2. they had learned nothing/very little about the plane and the safety routines. They had done no emergency training on a plane or a simulator, like crews working for other airlines do, because of Ryanair’s budget.

Promises
Promises presents a powerful portrait of seven Palestinian and Israeli children who live in and around Jerusalem. All are religious (the twins are the grandchildren of a Holocaust survivor). Most have strong political beliefs and have seen their share of tragedy – Faraj’s friend was killed in front of him – but as the film makes clear, they’re also kids.

The Palestinian children learn from their parents that the Israelis are evil, Jerusalem/Israel is their land and that they need to take it back.
The Israeli children learn from their parents that the Palestinians are evil, Israel is their land and that they need to protect it.

Some of the children are smarter than the adults though, and realize that they need to communicate and respect each other if they want peace, that people on both sides get killed and that the war has no winner – as long as they kill each other both sides are losers.
If children can understand this why can’t adults?

Hacking democracy
This documentary shows the vulnerabilities of voting machines. It reveals how easily results can be altered to change the outcome of an election. It also shows how the vendor of a majority of the voting machines, Diebold, gets paid by the republicans. Besides, in a letter from 2003 the CEO promises to get president Bush re-elected in 2004.

The software installed in the voting machines is kept secret from everyone – even the computer scientists, the certification labs and the election officials.
Cuyahoga, Ohio is a swing county in a swing state, capable of influencing the results of an election. While recounting Coyahoga’s votes from the 2004 election, they found some disturbing mismatches between the official votes and the real votes.

Trouble in Amish paradise
“An extraordinary insight into the secretive world of the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

When two radical Amish men, Ephraim and Jesse Stoltzfus, start to question some of the most fundamental aspects of their Amish culture, they face excommunication from their church and total rejection by their friends and family.”

They started reading the bible and having bible meetings. The leaders didn’t like that they started questioning all the rules they had to follow that aren’t mentioned in the bible. The leaders didn’t like that they had their own opinions, and since they didn’t want to say they were wrong to have their own opinions and that they regretted it, they were excommunicated.

Interesting things happened when their daughter got cancer though.

Parallel universes
“Scientists now believe there may really be a parallel universe – in fact, there may be an infinite number of parallel universes, and we just happen to live in one of them. These other universes contain space, time and strange forms of exotic matter. Some of them may even contain you, in a slightly different form. Astonishingly, scientists believe that these parallel universes exist less than one millimetre away from us.

In fact, our gravity is just a weak signal leaking out of another universe into ours.”

Even if you don’t believe in the theories they present, it’s very interesting to watch if you like to challenge your own world view.